diff --git a/config/runtime.exs b/config/runtime.exs
index 9d560c4e..7dcdaa0e 100644
--- a/config/runtime.exs
+++ b/config/runtime.exs
@@ -322,7 +322,7 @@ if config_env() == :prod do
   config :towerops, Towerops.Repo,
     ssl: ssl_config,
     url: database_url,
-    pool_size: String.to_integer(System.get_env("POOL_SIZE") || "15"),
+    pool_size: String.to_integer(System.get_env("POOL_SIZE") || "10"),
     # Proactively ping idle connections every 1s to detect dead SSL connections
     # before they're handed to a real query. Without this, a dead connection
     # sits in the pool until a query checks it out and hangs for the full timeout.
diff --git a/k8s/deployment.yaml b/k8s/deployment.yaml
index ff7f2339..b5b56f16 100644
--- a/k8s/deployment.yaml
+++ b/k8s/deployment.yaml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ spec:
   strategy:
     type: RollingUpdate
     rollingUpdate:
-      maxSurge: 100% # Start all new pods at once for fast rollouts
+      maxSurge: 1 # Limit to 3 pods during rollout to avoid exceeding PG max_connections
       maxUnavailable: 0 # Keep all pods running during rollout
   minReadySeconds: 10 # Wait 10s after pod is ready before considering it available
   selector: